The one-year delay to the start of the MER is part of a package of measures aimed at reducing energy prices, write Maxim Krukov and Dafydd ab Iago
The European Commission has agreed to delay by one year the implementation of the bloc's methane emissions regulation (MER), following months of pressure from member states and the oil and gas industry. But the commission is still facing calls to delay implementation even further, and make wider changes to the law.
European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen confirmed on 6 October that the bloc would grant "flexibility" on the MER for an additional year, as part of a package of measures aimed at reducing energy prices. The new measures also include the establishment of a taskforce for joint energy procurement on behalf of EU member states, to build on the joint gas purchasing already in place under the bloc's AggregateEU platform. The taskforce will move the system from "simple matchmaking to aggregating demand", with a market operator handling joint procurement, von der Leyen says.
For the MER, the revised timeframe means all new oil, gas and coal import contracts must be with exporters that meet the same monitoring, reporting and verification obligations as EU producers from 2028, rather than 2027 previously. Von der Leyen did not clarify whether the commission will amend the law or further soften enforcement, beyond its June recommendation that states refrain from imposing penalties for non-compliance over 2027-29. The legal obligation for compliance falls on EU importers so they — rather than exporters — would be subject to penalties.
The one-year delay applies solely to the regulation's import provisions, EU energy commissioner Dan Jorgensen told the European Parliament, warning against potential attempts to make wider changes. "I would also warn against introducing different kinds of other demands," Jorgensen said. Parliament and EU member states will be able to suggest broader amendments to the MER after the commission has formally proposed legislation to delay the import provisions by a year.
Multiple EU member states previously raised concerns about the law's implementation. When a "clear" majority of member states and many others say implementation is not possible within the current timeframe, the commission had to listen, Jorgensen said, when responding to calls from lawmakers for a postponement of the MER until 2030. "We can live with a one-year postponement, not of the whole regulation, but of the import provisions," he said. "Now the obligation is on member states to make sure that they are ready in one year," Jorgensen said, adding that "a lot of new" contracts have been signed in recent months.
On the wrong side of 30
Yet some lawmakers are still calling for the new rules to be postponed until the end of the decade, with the announcement of a one-year delay appearing to have done little to quell criticism of the regulation. The EU should suspend the methane regulation not just for one year, but until 2030, German lawmaker Christian Ehler — a member of the parliament's largest political group, the centre-right EPP — says. "Otherwise we'll quite simply be sitting here again next year," he says.
But suspending the methane regulation puts the EU's climate targets at risk and opens the door to further weakening of the rules, German Green lawmaker Jutta Paulus says. "With the announcement of the delay, the fossil fuel lobby has smelt blood and is already making further demands," according to Paulus, who led Parliament's negotiations with EU member states on the final text of the law in 2024.
Jorgensen has rejected claims that the delay would weaken the bloc's climate ambitions, arguing that the law already positions Europe at the forefront of methane emissions reduction. But postponing the MER until 2030 would not "get the effects that we want with regards to fighting climate change and stopping the emissions of methane", he says.
